There have been centrists in both sides of politics, who serve alongside the various factions within the Liberal and Labor parties.

In addition, there are a number of smaller groups that have formed in response to the bipartisan system who uphold centrist ideals. South Australian Senator Nick Xenophon had launched his own centrist political party called the Nick Xenophon Team (NXT) in 2014, renamed Centre Alliance in 2018. The Palmer United Party has been suggested as being a centrist party as well, but the party itself does not make such formal claims of being politically centrist.[3]

The traditional centrist party of Flanders was the People's Union which embraced social liberalism and aimed to represent Dutch-speaking Belgians who felt culturally suppressed by Francophones. The New Flemish Alliance is the largest and since 2009 the only extant successor of that party. It is, however, primarily composed of the right wing of the former People's Union, and has adopted a more liberal conservative ideology in recent years.

France has a tradition of parties that call themselves "centriste", though the actual parties vary over time: when a new political issue emerges and a new political party breaks into the mainstream, the old centre-left party may be de facto pushed rightwards, but unable to consider itself a party of the right, it will embrace being the new centre: this process occurred with the Orléanism, Moderate Républicanism, Radical Republicanism and Radical-Socialism.

Zentrismus is a term only known to experts, as it is easily confused with Zentralismus ("centralism", the opposite to decentralisation/federalism), so the usual term in German for the political centre/centrism is politische Mitte (literally "political middle", or "political centre"). Historically, the German party with the most purely centrist nature among German parties to have had current or historical parliamentary representations was most likely the social-liberalGerman Democratic Party of the Weimar Republic (1918–1933).

There existed during the Weimar Republic (and again after the Nazi period) a Zentrum, a party of German Catholics founded in 1870. It was called Centre Party not for being a proper centrist party, but because it united left-wing and right-wing Catholics, because it was the first German party to be a Volkspartei (catch-all party) and because his elected representatives sat between the liberals (the left of the time) and the conservatives (the right of the time). However, it was distinctly right-wing conservative in that it was not neutral on religious issues (such as on secular education), being markedly against more liberal and modernist positions.

The main successor of Zentrum after the return of democracy to West Germany in 1945, the Christian Democratic Union, has throughout its history alternated between describing itself as right-wing or centrist and sitting on the right-wing (with the Free Democratic Party in its social liberal moments sitting at its left, in the centre and themselves sitting at the centre, with the FDP in its classical liberal moments sitting at its right, in the right-wing). The representatives of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, although they have since the 1990s many times referred to themselves as "the new middle" (under influence of the Third way of the time), feel less at ease in describing their party as centrist due to their history and socialist identity.

Alliance '90/The Greens was founded in 1993 as a merger from the East German Alliance 90 (a group of centrist/transversalist civil rights activists) and the (West) German Greens. The latter was a coalition of various unorthodox-left politicians and more liberal "realists". This Bundestag party also hesitates in using the term centre, although it does distance itself as well from the tag of left, which identifies it for the moment as a transversalist party. The transversalist moderation of the party and its position in the Bundestag between the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats (while the FDP has its seats at the right of the Christian Democrats) also points somewhat to The Greens being a more or less centrist party.

In the state parliaments of specific German states there are other specifically regional parties which could be identified as centrist. The South Schleswig Voter Federation, of the Danish and Frisian minorities in the state of Schleswig-Holstein has currently a centrist political position, although in the past the party usually leaned to the left. In the German presidential elections of 2009, 2010 and 2012, it supported the candidates of the Social Democrats and the Greens. In Bavaria, the Free Voters party present at the state parliament may also be seen as a centrist party.

In Greece centrism has its roots to centrist politician and founder of Agricultural and Labour Party, Alexandros Papanastasiou. In 1961, Georgios Papandreou created along with other political leaders the coalition party of Centre Union. Five parties were merged: Liberal Party, Progressive Agricultural Democratic Union, National Progressive Center Union, Popular Social Party into one, with strong centrist agenda opposed equally to right wing party of National Radical Union and left wing party of United Democratic Left. The Centre Union Party was the last Venizelist party to hold power in Greece. The party nominally continued to exist until 1977 (after the Junta it was known as the Center Union – New Forces), when its successor Union of the Democratic Centre (EDIK) party was created.

Union of Centrists was created by Vassilis Leventis in 1992 under the title "Union of Centrists and Ecologists", though the name was changed shortly after. The Union of Centrists claims to be the ideological continuation of the old party Center Union. The party strives to become "the political continuance of the centrist expression in Greece". Leventis aimed to become part of the Venizelist legacy of some great politicians of the past, such as Eleftherios Venizelos and George Papandreou Sr. However, the party's total influence had been marginal until 2015, with 1.79% of the total votes (in the Greek legislative election, January 2015) being its highest achievement before finally making its way to the Greek Parliament in September 2015 with 3.43% of the total votes and 9 members elected.

In India, actor turned politician Kamal Haasan has launched a party named Makkal Needhi Maiam meaning People's Centre for Justice. He claims that the party's ideology is Centrism as the name suggests and looks to focus on the politics of the state Tamil Nadu. As a self-proclaimed rationalist he claims to usher in a scientific rational centrist outlook to seek, analyse and solve various issues instead of falling for the binary polarizing political trap which the right wing and left wing tend to.

In the Republic of Ireland, both two main political parties (Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael) claim the political centre ground, but seem to lean to the centre-right and be mostly made up of centre-right members.[13][13][14] The two parties have shared broadly similar policies in the past, with their primary division being perceived as being steeped in Irish Civil War politics. Fine Gael is aligned to Christian democratic parties in Europe via its membership of the European People's Party and is described internationally as centre-right by the likes of Reuters.[15] The consensus in analysis seems to be that Fianna Fáil is mostly centrist, expanding to the centre-right space and that Fine Gael is mostly centre-rightist, expanding also to the centre space.

In the 1980s and 90s there were two self-described "centre" parties, the Centre Party and the Centre Democrats who at some point were represented in Dutch parliament. However these parties were considered as far right (in the case of the Centre Democrats) or even extreme right (in the case of the Centre Party) in their opinion about foreign immigration.[17] Both parties denied being racist or extremist in character. The party slogan of the Center Party was "niet rechts, niet links" ("Neither rightist nor leftist"), and in some respect could be seen as a centrist (or more correctly Third Position) party since it borrowed ideas from the political (far) right (a tough stand on immigration combined with typical racial prejudice) and the political left (mixed economy, green politics). However both of these two parties didn't really have a coherent ideology; they were basically one-issue parties focussed on what the perceived as mass immigration from non-European countries.

Neither the Centre Democrats (a now defunct centrist political party) nor the Liberal Alliance (a political party founded as a centrist social liberal party, but that now is a classical liberal party), both of Denmark, are rooted in centrist agrarianism.

Civic Platform (PO), ruling in 2007–2015, began in 2001 as a liberal conservative party, but later under the leadership of Donald Tusk turned into typical centrist in order to attract left-leading liberal voters. Depending on the context, it is described as either Christian Democratic (it is a member of European People's Party), conservative, liberal, or social. Its pragmatism, technocracy and lack of ideology have been nevertheless criticized and currently, under the new leader Grzegorz Schetyna, it is returning to the right. Other political groups like Polish People's Party (PSL) may be described as centrist too (in Poland, national-moral right-wing Law and Justice is social conservative, usually at the same time economical left and favor protectionism policies).

The only national party that defends itself as a centrist party is Citizens, whose platform is been increasingly perceived as right-wing by the Spanish citizens as the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas surveys show. In April 2018 Ciudadanos obtained a 6,77, when ranging political parties from 1 to 10, where 1 was farthest left and 10 its equivalent in the right.[23] It first entered the Cortes Generales in 2015.

In Catalonia, where the party was born, many people even consider it as an extreme right-wing party, considering its fierce "opposition to nationalism". Not even the media agree on its place and several newspapers from different ideologies manifest that Citizens is either left or right, depending on their political line. Regardless of subjective opinions, the truth is that Ciudadanos has always tried to reach agreements[24] with the national party, which according to several opinion polls Spanish voters most traditionally considered to be the closest to the centre: Union, Progress and Democracy (UPyD). This popular perception was pointed out by UPyD, which positions itself simultaneously on the political centre and cross-sectionalism, thus embracing ideas across the political spectrum.[25][26]

In the late 1990s, Labour under the leadership of Tony Blair began to move towards a centrist Third Way policy platform, creating the New Labour movement. The new New Labour era is seen as ending when Blair's successor Gordon Brown lost the 2010 election to the Conservatives. Brown's successor as leader, Ed Miliband, moved the party (slightly) to the left of New Labour era position. Miliband set out his stall to "redefine the political centre", with pundits declaring New Labour "dead".[43] The Blue Labour movement, launched in 2009, attempted to cultivate a new path for Labour centrism that would appeal to socially conservative working class periods, and was a mild influence on Labour during Miliband's tenure. The party later moved decisively to the left when the socialist Jeremy Corbyn became leader in 2015, as a result of the introduction of a one member one vote system under Miliband.

In March 2011, Nick Clegg, the-then leader of the Liberal Democrats and Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, stated that he believed that his party belonged to the radical centre, mentioning John Maynard Keynes, William Beveridge, Jo Grimond, David Lloyd George and John Stuart Mill as examples of the radical centre that preceded the Liberal Democrats' establishment in 1988. He pointed to liberalism as an ideology of people and described the political spectrum and his party's position as follows: "For the left, an obsession with the state. For the right, a worship of the market. But as liberals, we place our faith in people. People with power and opportunity in their hands. Our opponents try to divide us with their outdated labels of left and right. But we are not on the left and we are not on the right. We have our own label: Liberal. We are liberals and we own the freehold to the centre ground of British politics. Our politics is the politics of the radical centre".

In the 2000s, David Cameron also moved the Conservative Party towards the centre, allowing his party to be elected in 2010 in a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. In the 2015 election, the Conservatives gained a majority and the Liberal Democrats lost most of their seats. They regained a small number of seats in the 2017 election. Cameron's successor Theresa May used left-wing rhetoric on her appointment as Prime Minister, stating her wish to tackle social inequality, and adopted some of Ed Miliband's policies; for example, on regulating energy companies. However, the party's 2017 manifesto was seen as sharp break from the centre ground, appealing to traditionally Tory heartland issues in the aftermath of the UK's Brexit referendum, including a promise to restore fox hunting.

Following the Brexit referendum, politics in the UK was seen as having reverted to traditionally polarised "left and right" politics. For the 2017 election, the group More United was set up in the vein of the US Super PAC model to support candidates from multiple parties who meet its values; it gave support primarily to Labour and Lib Dem MPs, as well as one Conservative. In April 2018, amid The Observer newspaper reported that a group setup by Simon Franks had amassed £50 million to start a new centrist political party in the UK to field candidates at the next general election.[44] It has reportedly been named United for Change.

Americans Elect, a coalition of American centrists funded by wealthy donors such as business magnate Michael Bloomberg, former junk-bond trader Peter Ackerman and hedge fund manager John H. Burbank III, launched an effort in mid-2011 to create a national "virtual primary" that would challenge the current two-party system. The group aims to nominate a presidential ticket of centrists with names that would be on ballots in all 50 states. The group banks on broad cultural dissatisfaction with the partisan gridlock in Washington, D.C. The Christian Science Monitor has stated that "the political climate couldn't be riper for a serious third-party alternative" such as their effort, but the "hurdles Americans Elect faces are daunting" to get on ballots.[45]

Journalist and political commentator E. J. Dionne wrote in his book Why Americans Hate Politics, published on the eve of the 1992 presidential election, that he believes American voters are looking for a "New Political Center" that intermixes "liberal instincts" and "conservative values". He labelled people in this centre position as "tolerant traditionalists". He described them as believers in conventional social morals that ensure family stability, as tolerant within reason to those who challenge those morals and as pragmatically supportive of government intervention in spheres such as education, child care and health care, as long as budgets are balanced.[47]

Washington political journalist Linda Killian wrote in her 2012 book The Swing Vote that Americans are frustrated with Congress and its dysfunction and inability to do its job. A growing number of Americans are not satisfied with the political process because a number of factors such as influx of money into politics and the influence of special interests and lobbyists. The book classifies four types of independent voters including "NPRRepublicans", "America First Democrats", "The Facebook Generation" and "Starbucks Moms and Dads" who were big determinates of swing votes in the 2012 presidential election.[48] Political Columnist and author John Avlon wrote in his 2005 book Independent Nation that centrism is not a matter of compromise or reading polls; rather it's an antidote to the politics of divisiveness, providing principled opposition to political extremes.[49]

^The party rejects the left-right classification, and indeed it appears difficult to classify the party: it tends to be on the centre or even centre-left on social and environmental issues, centrist on economic issues and centre-right on ethical issues.

^"Independent Nation: How the Vital Center Is Changing American Politics". publishersweekly.com. Publisher's Weekly. February 1, 2004. Retrieved November 4, 2017. Avlon's thesis by exploring political battlegrounds-from state primaries to presidential campaigns-in which a centrist message succeeded. To Avlon centrism is not a matter of compromise or reading polls; rather it's an antidote to the politics of divisiveness, providing principled opposition to political extremes.